I can say this was needed as things have progressed in the last couple of years since Google Health was introduced. We now see some consumer devices that can now connect and make it easier for one to get the data in place.

Cardio Trainer and Fitbit were named as 2 new devices that connect. Be sure and read all privacy disclosures on devices though as 3rd party companies do have an effect here on who you grant access to your data. If you have received a device as part of an employer wellness program, ask questions as to who gets your data and where it goes.

If you are doing this on your own and connect to Google Health then you are in control. You can always find a link to Google Health on the Medical Quack under the Personal Health Records section. In addition, the Medical Quack has asection with over 300 posts on personal health records you might want to check out and there’s a permanent link at the top of the page, or you can simply use the Google search boxes (#2 is fast) and find all kinds of relative information here as there’s over 2 years of posts.

I do have to admit it has been a few months since I have logged in to my account so here’s a brief screenshot of the new portal and how it looks. On the Fitbit integration you can read what others think here from the West Wireless Institute.

Google Health has added a section to where you can list an insurance company now too. Here’s a couple past posts that may be of interest too. If you want to automate getting your labs imported, you can do that.

Back to my favorite subject in healthcare, bar coding with Microsoft Tags too so you can use a bar code to import your data too so get your digital token. If you read here often enough I have several posts with this same technology becoming an avenue for the FDA, and drug and device companies to use for FDA recalls.

The video at the link above will show you how to connect your Google Health account and have the ability to add information to your Google Health account simply by snapping the code with your cell phone.

Anyway I hope I covered some areas with Google Health that you may not see in other posts here and show where all of this is headed with augmentation to make things easier for the consumer all the way around. You can put the bar code reader on your phone and play around at the grocery store with some Wheaties and Cheerios to see how this works, it’s very cool and almost easier than making a phone call! BD

Via a new dashboard, Google Health will now organize all of your health and wellness (i.e. fitness) information in one place. The new platform will give provide graphs on your progress with weight loss goals, and you’ll be able to create custom trackers for wellness issues like dietary habits, daily sleep, frequency of exercise, pregnancy or even how many cups of coffee you drink a day.

Of course, one the keys to the overall success of Google Health are partnerships with insurance companies and hospitals to make data more available to consumers. As of last Fall, Google Health still needed to sign up hundreds of insurers in the U.S. Today, Google is announcing relationships with the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and Sharp HealthCare. Last year, Google announced a partnership with CVS to import prescription data into the platform.

Dark Arts of Mathemical Deception

Professor Charlie Siefe of NYU, a mathematician debunks clinical trials, and few other items to where data is spun and fools you, every day example, hear about the perfect butt algorithm and more. These are probably some things you have never thought about but again after listening to what he has to say, it’s time to think about being skeptical. Here’s a radio show that also talks about the same topics.

This video digs in a bit further with how fictitious business models are used by banks and companies do this too. The models are so complex that CEOs don’t even understand them. “Quants, The Alchemists of Wall Street will take you through how “math models” work at banks and financial institutions in a way that even the layman can understand. More videos like over at theAlgo Duping/Killer Algorithm Page. Bank of America will also tell you“IT’ is a business” how they make money.

Weapons of Math Destruction

This is a lecture where Kathy O’Neill, a former Quant who worked for a Hedge Fund (Weapons of Math Destruction) on Wall Street will tell you what is done with your retirement money and more. The banks and companies use technology to take advantage because they can. “Of course we are going to take advantage because our tools are our brains…if they could figure out a way to take advantage of pension funds they would, a good interview with explaining smart money and dumb money.

Algorithms Shape The World

This is a very good presentation done a TED Conference and really was the one that got everyone started thinking about algorithms and today it’s talked about a lot. As he says “if you’re an algorithm, life is looking pretty good, but can’t say the same for humans”. What is a black box? Nobody has any control over the flash crash. We have moved forward a bit but still we are writing the unreadable and lost the sense of some of what is happening. Nice plug for Nanex here with research.